Hi Everyone from Calgary

[CalgaryPT]

Hello everyone -

I just joined today. Not sure why it took me so long to find a electronics forum, but glad I am here. I've been building circuits for 40+ years now, and grew up next to a Radio Shack in Calgary, Alberta (which started me on the addiction I guess). I am no professional, but can design and build small circuits and modify many to get the job done. I was a Forrest M. Mims fan from the age of 10 or so when I started reading his Engineer's Notebooks. I later learned he moved from science to liberal arts (English) just like me, so I liked the guy even more. He even responded to an email I sent him years ago (nice guy!) Some people have sports heros, but this guy was my hero. Yeah....I'm a geek.

Anyways, I am retired now. I do metal working and electronics as hobbies. It's great to have time to get back into electronics more. Somewhere a decade ago or so when I wasn't paying attention, surface mount technology took off. Sadly, my eyesight isn't good enough to get into this. But its fun to watch progress.

I am interested in learning new PCB techniques. I just started teaching myself Fritzing, but have yet to send off for a board. I wish there were a way to transfer these designs to your own board and etch them yourself.

Anyways...that's me

 

[(*steve*)]

Howdy.

I can relate to much of your background, including the eyesight stuff.

I am pretty heavily into surface mount, even though I now have trouble reading the colour bands on 1/2 W resistors -- with my glasses on!

There are two things I rely on. First is magnifying headsets, second is the ability to solder by sense of smell (even if I'm not deaf and dumb, and don't have disciples to lead me about).

Surface mount is one of those things which looks hard until someone shows you a few tricks. After that you will wonder what the fuss was all about. And if you make your own boards, surface mount saves you a lot of time drilling holes.

 

[CalgaryPT]

I never thought about the drilling aspect to surface mount. And even though I have an illuminated magnifier, I never looked into headsets as a solution.

I had nice laugh about the sense of smell comment. I get that. Actually, I still prefer lead based solder...I grew up with it and truly love the smell of lead. I'm sure I'll grow a third eye or something at some point. But I'm betting other bad habits will kill me long before lead fumes do.

Thanks for the welcome. Cheers.

 

[hevans1944]

@CalgaryPT : Welcome to Electronics Point! You and I appear to have similar backgrounds. I, too, was afraid to mess with SMD because it looked really difficult. But a couple of years ago I took the plunge and ordered some really fine (0.021" diameter) 63/37 flux-core eutectic tin-lead solder, along with some solder flux in a syringe, and some really long, fine-tapered, soldering iron tips for my Weller soldering station. This is all you need to get started. Well, that and a stereo magnifying headset. I use a Donegan Optivisor with a 4 diopter ground-glass prismatic lens, but newer versions use plastic lenses.

As Steve pointed out, there are a number of tips that are easily learned with practice. One of the most counter-intuitive is drag-soldering across a row of IC pins, allowing capillary action to separate the solder between adjacent pins. This really does work and is a much quicker alternative to re-flow soldering in a re-purposed toaster oven. A stereo magnifying headset is a must, as are a set of fine tweezers, plenty of small-sized solder-wick (especially while learning SMD soldering techniques!) and (eventually) a hot-air soldering re-work station which makes removal and replacement of SMD components very simple.

 

[CalgaryPT]

Really? Holy cow. Drag soldering? I'm not sure if I am scared or excited now. I've got a good station, but tweezers? Wow. I suppose if I am going to hang out on this forum I at least need to try it. I think there are some surface mount kits out there for nubes. Maybe I will try one just so I can speak intelligently on the matter. I'll put my soldering skills up against anyone with traditional components, but when it comes to surface mount, I'm pretty apprehensive.

So only a few hours into this forum, and I am already challenged and have a new goal in mind. Man, I remember selling vacuum tubes at Radio Shack when i was 15. Clearly, I'm not in Kansas anymore.

Thanks hevans1944

 

[(*steve*)]

When I've taught people to do surface mount soldering, I've given them standard soldering irons and 3mm solder.

Whilst you probably don't want to use this as a preferred set of tools, it pays to get used to solder that dwarfs your pins. Eventually, as you solder finer and finer pitch devices, you'll be glad you felt comfortable with apparently mismatched tools.

The skill with hand soldering SMT is to be very delicate with the amount of solder you feed to the joint and how you apply heat to the leads/pads.

If you start with 0.3mm solder and 1206 resistors, you'll be feeding in as much length (or more) than you would with a normal through hole joint and larger solder.

3mm solder when doing SMD work requires a very deft hand, and a larger tool will get you used to the delicate touch required to solder just one pin.

Removing excess solder is something you'll need to do a lot in the beginning. It's better to learn how to do it without solder braid because braid is great at transferring lots of heat to the component.

Drag soldering is something which generally requires a larger tip, and solder braid is often the easiest way of getting solder from between pins of finer pitch devices when you've been a little heavy handed with the solder.

All up though, the techniques take longer to describe than to do, and only take a modicum of practice if you are already basically competent at soldering. Having said that, at least one person who took my SMT soldering course had never soldered anything before in her life, and she did as well as anyone.

There hardest thing is to breadboard with these components. You need to either have through hole equivalents or break out boards.

 

[CalgaryPT]

Thanks. I see a new experience in my future. And maybe a switch to decaffeinated coffee.....

 

[hevans1944]

There hardest thing is to breadboard with these components. You need to either have through hole equivalents or break out boards.

That's what got me involved with SMD construction. I ordered some six-pin PIC10F206 from Microchip, which come in an SOT-23 package. I also ordered some 8-pin header adapter boards to allow the PICs to be soldered in place on the adapter boards and then plugged into a prototyping solderless breadboard. Much later, I realized I could purchase the same microprocessor in an 8-pin PDIP package that would plug directly into my breadboard. Too late! I was already hooked on SMD assembly. But, yeah, breakout boards are good (and fairly inexpensive) for prototyping. And many of those itsy bitsy teeny weenie parts are still available with through-hole leads for prototyping. Check out the prices on eBay for SMD resistors, capacitors, etc. You can purchase a "lifetime supply" for just a few dollars. Problem is keeping them sorted once you have them on hand. Let us know if you have an elegant solution for that! Years ago I used to keep SN74xxx TTL ICs in individual manila clasp envelopes, but SMD parts are way too small for that. Maybe some sort of pill dispenser would work.